Faith in God is trust
in God, dependence upon God, and surrender to God. And the outcome of our faith
towards God will be obedience, leading to holiness. But there is another angle
in all of this revealed in the Bible: Godís trust of us.

Can God trust us? Of course, this is
not a question God is trying to figure out. He already knows the answer. But
often we think only in terms of whether we trust God. Seldom do we think in
terms of whether God can trust us. Yet, according to Jesus, much about our
eternal relationship with God depends upon whether God can trust us.

Of course the irony is that the way
in which we become trustworthy to God is by trusting Him. Indeed,
unconditional faith in God is the only way in which we can become those whom God
can trust. For it is only if all that I have, indeed, all that I am, has been
relinquished into the hands of God by faith, that I can be trusted with those
things.

Real Faithfulness

Faithfulness to God towards anything
is the result of my refusal to take ownership over it. Thus, to be faithful, I
must treat the object, or issue, or person, as if it (or he) belongs to God. All
things belong to God anyways, even if I donít want to acknowledge it. Thus, if
I live as if everything belongs to God, and not to me, I am walking in reverence
to the Truth. I am, in effect, being faithful to God.

Apply this principle to specifics. If
I live towards my fellow human being as if he or she belongs to God, doesnít
that change things? Sure. It means I cannot violate Godís purpose for that
person. Or if I live towards my church as if it belongs to God, doesnít that
gender in me a greater reverence towards that church? Sure. I am dealing with
Godís property. Not mine. The result will be obedience.

Get more personal. The Bible states,
"You are not your own. You are bought with a price." (see I Cor. 6:19
and II Cor. 13:5) So we donít even belong to ourselves. Indeed, the sin of the
human race is that we demand that we belong to ourselves Ė that we own
ourselves. Thus, living in accordance with Godís ownership over all things is
fundamental to the Truth.

This Truth is all through the Bible.
When we pray, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in
heaven," we are at once acknowledging Godís ownership over all things,
and asking Him to exercise it. In fact, the name God uses most often for
Christians in the Bible, "saints," means, "holy ones,"
which, in the Greek, means, "to be set part for God." In other words,
"a saint," is one who belongs to God. Despite our failure to live like
it, a saint who belongs to God is the ONLY KIND of saint God knows anything
about.

Faithfulness Ė being one whom God
can trust Ė is the result of seeing that God owns all, and living like it. It
means to do right by Godís property. It means to seek Godís glory and Godís
highest through all things.

An Eternal Issue

God wants to build in us
faithfulness. But not just for this age. Faithfulness is valuable here in this
age, but itís primary purpose is for the next age. And the way in which God
builds into us faithfulness is by giving us a few things over which to be
faithful. Jesus said:

His lord said unto him, Well done,
thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I
will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. (Mat
25:21)

And I say unto you, Make to yourselves
friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive
you into everlasting habitations. He that is faithful in that which is least is
faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in
much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will
commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that
which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own? No servant
can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or
else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and
mammon. (Luke 16:9-13)

Now notice something here: The THINGS
over which we are to be faithful may be important. No question about that. But
what God is after are not those THINGS. He is after the FAITHFULNESS which is
built in us through them. If we are faithful unto God over that which He has
given us, the things given may all pass away into history, but what will remain
is our relationship to God: Have we become, through what God gave us,
people who are faithful? If we have, then God CAN trust us Ė He can actually
trust us with MORE over which we will be faithful. This is a principle, not only
for the here and now, but describes the relationship between now and the eternal
ages.

Chief among those things over which
God has given us to be faithful is His life in us. Of course, this
isnít a THING; it is a Person. So the question becomes, "What have I
become because of the Holy Spirit in me?" I do not belong to myself, and
the Holy Spirit isnít mine. Am I growing to understand this, and walk in the
reverence of this Truth?

Never think that when you die, what
you are in relationship to Jesus Christ is going to be altered in any way. It is
NOT going to be altered. What you have become Ė I mean the real you, not the
faÁade which we all carry Ė is going to be SEALED. You will be exactly who
you are in relationship to Christ. If you are faithful to Him, that is sealed.
If you are not, that lack of faithfulness will be sealed. And according to
Jesus, this will determine whether God can trust you with MORE in the eternal
ages.

The Basis for Blessing

Whether God can trust us is actually
the question that is the basis for whether God can bless us with much in this
age. At the end of the day, Godís blessing upon us is not going to be
determined by whether we keep the right law, or do the right thing Ė although
these things will be involved. Rather, at the root, Godís blessing upon us is
determined by whether God can trust us with the blessing. Are we faithful
people?

Often, when we ask God to bless us
along some line, God does not do it. Why? Well, it could be that we are not
faithful. But most often, God is indicating that He must first MAKE us
faithful. How does He do that? Through testing and proving. By seeing whether we
are faithful over the little we have. That may determine whether God can trust
us with more.

God is not going to help us destroy
ourselves. For instance, people often ask God for money. Thatís fine. We ought
to look to God for our provision. But suppose I am in bondage to money in a
destructive way. If I ask God for money, it is highly unlikely that He is going
to answer. Why would God feed a person the very thing that is destroying them
Ė even if that person thinks it would be a blessing?

God would say to us: "Surrender
to me all that you are, and all that you have." This would include
financial needs. Perhaps then God would test us along that line. If we are
faithful to God Ė by trusting Him over what little we have Ė we are then,
ummmm -- faithful! So God can then be freer, if it suits Him, to bless us with a
greater abundance. Why? Because He can trust us!

For unto every one that has shall be
given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that has not shall be taken
away even that which he has. (Matt. 25:29)

So why do some people who are clearly
NOT trustworthy seem to get blessed? Well, blessing can come a number of ways,
not all of which are of God. Some people serve mammon, and mammon can be quite
the profitable master! Or God may bless people for the purpose of building in
them faithfulness. In the end, however, everything comes back to the same
end: We must be faithful.

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or
whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Cor 10:31)

Trustworthiness is not the result of
me trying to be faithful to God so that I can get Him to do what I want.
Trustworthiness is something that is built Ė by my surrendering everything to
God, and then beginning to live as if everything belongs to HIM. If I do
this, I become faithful to God Ė one whom God can trust, because I have
trusted Him.

God wants to bless us more than we
know. But He must shape us FOR the blessing, otherwise it would be our
undoing. And that, "shaping," is faithfulness.